HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 3/17/18

 HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 3/17/18

Every Tuesday on HardRockDaddy.com.  The HRD Radio Report digs deeper into the weekly Active Rock charts, providing commentary, reviews, recommendations and predictions.  It also features opinion pieces on chart action and the music business in general. The following is the Active Rock Mediabase Chart for the week ending 3/17/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	2	POP EVIL	“Waking Lions”	1885
2	1	GRETA VAN FLEET	“Safari Song”	1764
3	5	THREE DAYS GRACE	“The Mountain”	1684
4	4	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Red Cold River”	1621
5	6	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Gone Away”	1445
6	3	PAPA ROACH	“Born For Greatness”	1273
7	7	NOTHING MORE	“Do You Really Want It?”	1244
8	15	GODSMACK	“Bulletproof”	1094
9	9	RISE AGAINST	“House On Fire”	997
10	21	SHINEDOWN	“DEVIL”	966
11	14	BAD WOLVES	“Zombie”	913
12	11	I PREVAIL	“Lifelines”	910
13	10	IN THIS MOMENT	“Roots”	872
14	12	RED SUN RISING	“Deathwish”	868
15	16	JONATHAN DAVIS	“What It Is”	734
16	17	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Straight Jacket”	656
17	18	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“The Doomed”	647
18	20	MUSE	“Thought Contagion”	606
19	8	METALLICA	“Spit Out The Bone”	565
20	19	FOZZY	“Painless”	560
21	13	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Meadow”	477
22	22	JUDAS PRIEST	“Lightning Strike”	398
23	23	DOROTHY	“Flawless”	372
24	320	PEARL JAM	“Can’t Deny Me”	334
25	24	A DAY TO REMEMBER	“Same About You”	306
26	27	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	301
27	26	MYLES KENNEDY	“Year Of The Tiger”	237
28	28	OF MICE & MEN	“Money”	218
29	25	AVATAR	“The King Wants You”	215
30	30	CHRIS STAPLETON	“Midnight Train To Memphis”	204
31	31	DED	“Hate Me”	199
32	32	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Whatever It Takes”	192
33	34	SHAMAN’S HARVEST	“The Devil In Our Wake”	187
34	35	MARILYN MANSON	“Tattooed In Reverse”	165
35	36	TRIVIUM	“Endless Night”	161
36	29	BLACK VEIL BRIDES	“The Last One”	157
37	37	MESSER	“Make This Life”	129
38	33	BUSH	“This Is War”	117
39	41	FEVER 333	“Walking In My Shoes”	113
40	39	ZERO THEOREM	“Area”	109
41	40	KILLERS	“Run For Cover”	107
42	46	VYCES	“Thin Luck”	105
43	0	PARKWAY DRIVE	“The Void”	95
44	42	JACOB CADE	“What’s Your Problem?!”	68
45	43	THE OUTFIT	“Soldier Boy”	63
46	44	JOSH TODD & THE CONFLICT	“Story Of My Life”	60
47	45	JIBE	“Release”	59
48	0	SEVENDUST	“Dirty”	54
49	66	BLACKTOP MOJO	“Dream On”	49
50	48	BLACK LABEL SOCIETY	“A Love Unreal”	49

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK (By Adam Waldman)

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY – “A Love Unreal”

The opening acoustic guitar picking by Zakk Wylde on “A Love Unreal” makes you think that you’re about to hear a haunting ballad, or at the very least, a modern-day power ballad.  Without warning, much like when a car gets t-boned on television or in film, the startling impact hits you like a ton of bricks when Wylde and company erupt into a classic Black Sabbath-esque tune.  It’s no secret that Black Label Society is heavily influenced by Sabbath, but make no mistake, there is a lot more to “A Love Unreal” than meets the eye.

Like his guitar style, Wylde’s vocals are among the most distinct in rock today.  He is, without question, one of the greatest double threats in the history of hard rock and metal.  There’s something about the tortured, melancholic emotion that he infuses into his vocals, which are equal parts heavy metal and southern rock.  The vocals alone would make “A Love Unreal” worth listening to several times over, but the outstanding guitar riffs surrounding the vocals take the song to another level.   As does the playing of the rest of the band, who are far from household names, but add tremendous value and chemistry.

“A Love Unreal” has a definite Sabbath feel, but the more you listen to it, the more you discover the nuances and complexities that have an almost progressive feel.  It’s just harder to notice if you’re listening casually because the overall vibe of the song is pure, riff-driven groove/stoner metal.  Categorize it however you’d like, but whatever you do, turn this one up to 11 and lose yourself in the music.  Knowing Active Rock radio, it’s not likely that this song will climb to the top of the chart, but it is more than worthy of being there.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

Last week, it was predicted that Pop Evil could take over the top spot from Greta Van Fleet as soon as this week if there was any decline.  Greta Van Fleet’s reign was short-lived.  “Safari Song” started a steep decline this week after peaking at #1 last week, allowing Pop Evil to ascend to the throne on basically flat spins.  “Waking Lions” may end up having an equally short run at the top.  If this week’s trend continues, there’s a fairly decent chance that Three Days Grace will take over the top spot next week.
 

 

HRD SPIN CONTROL (by Adam Waldman and Jon Loveless)

Each week, we will share the songs that we think should be added to rotations, alongside the songs that we feel should be dropped from rotations, either because they are a bad fit for the format, or because they have run their course and it’s time for a new single from the artist.

SPIN IT…

HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD – “Your Life”

WAYLAND – “Ghost”

FACING FIRE – “Filthy Life”

THE LAZYS – “Nothing But Trouble”

BOBAFLEX – “Lights Out”

BLACK STONE CHERRY – “Bad Habit”

DIAMANTE – “Had Enough”

ONE BAD SON – “Hurricane”

 

DROP IT…

Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”

The Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

Muse – “Thought Contagion”

Bush – “This Is War”

Chris Stapleton – “Midnight Train To Memphis”

Marilyn Manson – “Tattooed In Reverse”

Killers – “Run For Cover”

Greta Van Fleet – “Safari Song”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Format powerhouses Godsmack and Shinedown quickly soar into the Top 10…

The only change in the composition of the Top 30 songs (actually the top 38) is the arrival of new Pearl Jam, which premiers in the mid-20s with the week’s high debut…

The other new entry in the entire Top 40 comes from a small rise in spins for Fever 333.

Three other songs make their chart debut this week…brand new music from Sevendust and Parkway Drive, as well as the latest float in the cover tunes parade, this time coming from Blacktop Mojo.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Three Days Grace – “The Mountain”
Godsmack – “Bulletproof”
Shinedown – “Devil”

 
FALLING
Stone Temple Pilots – “Meadow”
Papa Roach – “Born For Greatness”
Metallica – “Spit Out The Bone”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

In response to a question that I was asked last week, yes, the low threshold for spins needed to enter the Top 50 in recent weeks does mean that a song could break onto the published chart while being played on only a single station in the country.  Based on simply “normal” heavy rotation thresholds, there are at least a half dozen stations who could – without doing anything out of the ordinary for their station – chart a song single-handedly.  And two such stations (ones on the upper end of the spins for their Heavy songs) could effectively manufacture a Top 40 track by themselves as well.

 

WRAP-UP

That’s all for this week.  Tune in to HardRockDaddy.com every Tuesday for the HRD Radio Report. \m/